Report says ‘pope’s hospital’ has poor hygiene, other issues

A secret three-month Vatican-authorized investigation in early 2014 said that the mission of Bambino Gesu Pediatric Hospital — “the pope’s hospital” — had been lost and was “today more aimed at profit than on caring for children,” according to an article on the New York Postwebsite.

But the report was never made public. While some of the recommendations were implemented, others were not. The Vatican commissioned a second, three-day inquiry in 2015 and concluded nothing was wrong.

An Associated Press investigation has found under leadership that governed from 2008 to 2015, the hospital expanded services and tried to make a money-losing Vatican enterprise turn a profit.

According to the report, overcrowding and poor hygiene contributed to infection outbreaks, including one 21-month superbug outbreak in the cancer ward that killed eight children.